CC BY 2.0 ↗
Square Reader
- Year
- 2010
- Creator
- Jack Dorsey, Jim McKelvey
- Company
- Square
- Location
- San Francisco, California
Description
The Square Reader is a white plastic square approximately 2.5 centimeters wide that connects to the headphone jack of a phone. With the Square app, the phone can read credit cards and accept payments.
Importance
Square did not charge for the reader and took a percentage of each sale, 2.75 percent in 2011. Small sellers, such as piano teachers and food trucks, could then accept cards without a merchant account. Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, started Square with Jim McKelvey in 2009.
Interesting fact
McKelvey, a glass artist, lost a $3,000 sale because he could not accept a credit card for one of his glass faucets.
Sources
- The New Money ↗MIT Technology Review · 2011-02-18
- Jack Dorsey's Square Is (Almost) Open For Business ↗TechCrunch · 2009-12-01
- The Square IPO ↗Acquired (podcast) · 2015